Season of Miracles
by trulywicked
Summary: Naruto decides to play secret santa to make his friends wishes come true all while believing that his own wish will never come true. However he'll soon realize that he's not the only secret santa around.


**_THIS IS A COMPLETED FIC, THE FIRST CHAPTER IS ALL THAT IS ON FFNET DUE TO CONTENT REASONS. THE COMPLETE FICTION IS ON MY AFF ACCOUNT. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ THE REST GO TO MY PROFILE PAGE HERE. THE LINK TO MY AFF PROFILE CAN BE FOUND THERE. _  
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**Disclaimer** is I don't own Naruto nor any characters thereof.

Now the warning for the whole fic-**WARNING:** This fic will contain romance between two guys and there will also be side pairings of both yaoi and het and maybe a threesome romance. Now I have but one rule _NO FLAMING THE PAIRINGS!_ Feel free to flame my writing style, spelling, or grammer if you want though.

_'thoughts' _(has single quote marks)

_emphasis_ (no single quote marks)

Chapter 1 Season of Miracles

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Gaara and his siblings had come to Konoha for a diplomatic mission and somehow they'd wound up at training ground 3 with the Rookie Nine, their surviving senseis, Team Gai, Tsunade, Shizune, and Jiraya and it had turned into an impromtu party. Naruto lounged on a tree branch and watched his friends and self chosen family chattering about how pretty Konoha looked covered in snow and decorated for christmas. He didn't quite understand why Konoha celebrated the foreign holiday, especially since it was based in a religion that no one in Konoha followed, but he did like the feeling it brought to his village. Around this time of year all of Konoha was cheerful and even the villagers who still hated him were kinder. This season always seemed to bring a sense of renewed hope in peace, goodwill, and belief in impossible wishes coming true for everyone else. For Naruto though he still believed in the possibility of world peace and goodwill toward men, he had lost the hope of his fondest wish becoming reality the day Sasuke thrust a chidori through his chest. That day he'd finally stopped believing that the avenger would ever return Naruto's secret feelings for him. Still, Naruto enjoyed seeing his village and his friends so excited about christmas.

A loud shout caused Naruto to swing his head in Sakura's direction in time to catch her slap Sai hard enough to send the artist flying across the field. He winced in sympathy as the pale man's flight was stopped by the training log he crashed into. Naruto lept down to help Sai up, "Hey you okay?"

Sai dusted himself off and smiled, "Yes, I've learned how to survive her blows with minimal damage Naruto-kun."

Naruto shook his head, "Why don't you just stop provoking her instead?"

"Why did you never stop provoking Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto blinked in surprise, Sai was the only one he'd ever told about his true feelings for Sasuke, "You mean you...want Sakura-chan to look at you in _that_ way?"

Sai simply nodded seriously and walked away from the astounded Naruto. The blond shook his head in amazement. _'Man talk about unexpected.'_ He turned when he felt someone tap his shoulder and smiled at the girl looking at him concernedly.

"Hey Ino-chan."

"You ok? You looked like someone just slapped your ass."

"Yeah I'm fine. Sai just told me something surprising is all."

Ino snorted, "I feel sorry for Sakura."

"Why?"

Ino looked at him like he had brain damage, "You mean you haven't noticed how she feels about that emotionally stunted asshole?"

"Uhhh no?"

The blond girl shook her head, "Jeeze Naruto you're so dense when it comes to your own teammates. She's head over heels in love with Sai but he's always so...blunt that she's scared he'll reject her harshly."

"She's told you this?"

"I'm her best friend, duh."

Naruto made a considering noise and Ino chuckled and left him to his thoughts.

The Uzumaki leaned against the training log Sai had hit and went back to observing the people around him. Tsunade and Jiraya were playing a poker drinking game and of course Tsunade was already halfway drunk and resorting to distracting tactics like showing more cleavage. Needless to say Jiraya was effictively distracted enough to be a little buzzed himself. Anko and Genma had shown up and were flirting with Kankuro and Shizune, respectively and unsuccessfully. Yamato and Kurenai were standing apart from the crowd and Kurenai's daughter was perched on the wood bender's shoulders while the genjutsu mistress and the ANBU captain tried to avoid revealing eye contact. Naruto sighed at the way Kurenai was determined not to allow herself to get too close to Yamato. _'I know she's trying to respect Asuma-sensei's memory but he'd want her to be happy and Captain Yamato would make her happy.'_

Choji was sitting next to Shikamaru, who looked like he was sleeping except for the occasional moving of his lips in response to something Choji said. The large young man would occasionally look in Ino's direction with a look he usually reserved for the last piece of barbeque then, as soon as Ino turned to see who's stare she felt, he'd turn back to Shikamaru and totally miss the look on Ino's face when her gaze hit him, a look of regret and longing, a look Naruto knew all too well since he saw it the mirror whenever he was thinking of Sasuke. _'Looks like Ino finally realized that looks aren't everything but doesn't know what to do about it.'_

As for Shikamaru, every so often Naruto would catch him cracking his eyes open slightly to watch Temari for a moment as she scolded Gaara for being so anti-social or laughed at a joke someone told. Naruto chuckled, he knew for a fact that the fan-mistress was enamored of Shikamaru but didn't want to make a move until she knew that she wouldn't be leaving Gaara alone in Suna. Which wouldn't be a problem if a certain Hyuga would get his ass in gear but Neji's trademark arrogance seemed to disappear when around Gaara and he went silent with insecurity.

And speaking of Hyuga with confidence issues, there was Hinata glancing between Kiba and Shino as they 'discussed' how to best track an unknown enemy. The Hyuga heiress had finally moved on when Naruto had told her that he was gay and she was now torn between her two teammates, who were equally torn between Hinata and their male teammate. _'If even one of them would just speak up then the whole problem would disappear but nooooo, they have to be nervous nellies.'_

"Yo!"

Naruto glanced over at his sensei who'd just shown up. _'Speaking of nervous nellies.'_

"Hey Kakashi-sensei what's up?"

"Oh just enjoying the sights."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "You mean the people who keep dancing around what they want?"

Kakashi shrugged, "Fear and painful pasts make for excellent roadblocks to happiness Naruto-kun."

"So speaks the voice of experience?"

Kakashi cleared his throat, "That's quite the stone you've thrown in that glass house of yours."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the jonin, Kakashi was too observent for his own good, "At least I wouldn't hesitate if I got another chance."

Kakashi squirmed, "Well you have an inner recklessness that tears down your roadblocks and that most don't have."

"Hmph, _some_ people around here could stand to borrow my recklessness."

"Well it _is_ the season of miracles Naruto. Maybe they'll finally get what they want."

"Maybe they will."

As Naruto watched Lee and TenTen start sparring and extending holds for a moment longer than necessary, he smiled. _'Matter of fact I intend to see to it that they get what they want since I can't.'_


End file.
